Meet The HAPPENING Crew

Summer Baird, Co-founder of Hintonburg Happening / Owner of The Hintonburg Public House

Summer was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 by The Ottawa Business Journal in 2016 for her exemplary work as a business owner and her community involvement, which includes organizing Hintonburg Happening, supporting local artists, and raising funds for the Parkdale Food Centre. For the 2017 festival she is organizing the Art Throw Down, Beer Gardens, finances & a bunch of other little things that make the hood happening.

Jamie McLennan, Owner of Character Creative

Jamie has more than 18 years of graphic design experience specializing in branding, illustration and website design for a variety of private sector, NGO and non-profit clients. He's one half of the design team Character Creative, and a proud Hintonburg resident and business owner. Jamie is also a co-founder of Pitt and 2nd, a collection of well designed and executed goods that pay homage to his hometown of Cornwall.

HIs work is on everything from our flyers to our Facebooks posts. He's the rad dad of two cool kids, he's the voice of reason in most conversations and he's the reason this fest looks good.

Brenda Dunn, Events Director/Sponsorship

Brenda has been getting in trouble for crayoning on walls for as long as she can remember. She eventually went to art school at the University of Guelph and drew on whatever the hell she wanted. She works and plays in Ottawa where she came for grad school and just stuck around ever since. She learned a lot of busy words during her Masters in English Lit, but it turns out she actually prefers the visual to the verbal when it comes to communication. Brenda and Shawn MacDonnell were the recipients of an arts grant from Awesome Ottawa for their creative Hintonbeasts project in 2016.

Brenda's energy and creative ideas will continue to help The HAPPENING reach new heights. In 2017, Brenda is leading events and supporting sponsorship and engagement.

Twitter: @artinjest / Instagram: @artinjest

Mary Beth Wolicky, Communications Director

Mary Beth moved to Wellington West from downtown a few years ago in search of a real neighbourhood. She loves living, working, playing and promoting this walkable, creative community. Mary Beth is a well-rounded communications professional, with extensive experience in strategic internal and corporate communications, change management, event planning and social media. Working with The HAPPENING is a great complement to MB's current work as a manager in digital communications for a Government department.

MB is leading communications for the 2018 festival, as well as volunteers. She enjoys getting to know the community through managing the festival Instagram account.